Fostering a Vibrant Work Environment for Physicians

The article discusses the importance of great leadership in the healthcare industry, focusing on patients rather than personal gain. It highlights that noble business leaders suppress their desire to misuse public resources and promote the organization's interests. The text also emphasizes the significance of organizational culture in driving innovation and performance excellence. It references several studies on leadership, innovation, and organizational culture, highlighting the interconnectedness of these concepts.

Running head: EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN HEALTH
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Effective Leadership in Health
Name
Affiliation

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Introduction
Healthcare is a multi-trillion dollar business worldwide. Unlike yesteryears, sound leadership is
paramount to provision of quality healthcare. Just like in the corporate world, researchers are
beginning to express interest in investigating the kind of leadership needed for the success of the
healthcare industry. From the past half of the millennium, leaders have put more emphasis on
examining their followers so as to gain insights into the overall organizational culture. However,
much remain desired because leadership demands a deep understanding of a people’s (Tohidi
and Jabbari, 2012, pp. 858). Culture and leadership pose an intricate relationship that needs to be
studied thoroughly. In this essay, we will explore how and why it is important to develop
individuals as leaders in the healthcare industry.
The healthcare sector is rapidly becoming dynamic. These changes are associated with the
changes of the political and socioeconomic intricacies that are compelling firms in the health
sector to explore new ways of keeping pace with complex operational environment (Rashidi,
Syed & Zaki, 2015, pp. 33). The sector is plagued by a number of issues ranging from being non-
profiteering operators to lack of innovation as a result of lack of adequate funding, and
unsupportive leadership approaches (Ali, Metz, & Kulik, 2015, pp. 1270; Miller et al., 2015, pp.
20-21).
As the world is nursing the economy back to health, organizations (including healthcare industry
players) are becoming aware of one important truth: not innovating is a risk that cannot be taken.
According to Jain (2014, pp. 13), relying on processes and approaches to operations that have
helped negate complexities in business in the past is not adequate to guarantee the future success

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of any organization. This school of thought can be illustrated by research and anecdotal
examples described herein.
In early 2010, more than two-thirds of CEOs interviewed cited innovation to be among the three
top strategic approaches of staying relevant in business. This number of CEOs was eight points
higher than that of a survey conducted in early 2009. An article published in the New York
Times late 2011 cited innovation as an integral component for progress and growth and offering
of relevant and competitive products and prosperous careers for determined employees.
In early 2011, during the Development Dimensions International (DDI) Global Leadership
Forecast, which attended by a little over twelve thousand business leaders from around the globe,
innovative and creativity was voiced as a top strategic priority that every leader should
incorporate in the day to day running of any organization (Ovidiu-Iliuta, 2014, pp. 1158;
Youngbantao & Rompho, 2015, pp. 122).
Nonetheless, creativity, considering all of its accredited standing in the face of perpetual
economic insecurity, and insurmountable changes in the technological and the working
environment, remains imperative. Healthcare organizations, just like those in the corporate
world, are under constant pressure to assume the most meaningful attitude to innovation to foster
faster coping with the competitive environment (Jończyk, 2014. Pp. 281). Innovations makes it
possible for an organization deliver more in the face of diminishing resources, address operation
complexities, and design new solutions for their clientele, and even introduce products that
healthcare seekers are not aware that they need them.
Every healthcare entity is expressed by a distinctive amalgam of business encounters and
calculated concerns. Consequently, every player in the healthcare industry has to make a

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decision on how he or she will approach innovation. Put differently, the kind of value-added
resolutions every healthcare entity required encompasses innovation which is many can cases
cannot take off without sound leadership (Ali, Metz, & Kulik, 2015, pp. 1271). Irrespective of
what that delineation appears to be, a breakthrough in innovation will undoubtedly enhance an
organization’s capacity to create and promote concepts in mass, to, in the words of Peter Sims
‘put countless “little bets” to augument the possibility concepts that will end bringing about a
considerable influence on the organization’s operational plans’ (Mathieu, 2015, pp. 5759).
Good leadership promotes creativity which is a social occurrence that not only needs a huge
number of people to create but execute also execute ideas. However, creativity also needs that
such people are a led by leaders who can interact, and cooperate with them so as to nurture
newly created ideas (Tohidi & Jabbari, 2012, pp. 857). Hogan and Coote (2014, pp. 1) describe
organizational culture as a means to observing, thinking, understanding, responding common
among all healthcare practitioners of a facility, which is mostly profoundly embedded in human
minds, and at times it goes undetected. It underscores what is customary, what incorporates,
bonds, calms, and thus relegates doubt. It emanates from synchronicity, collaboration and
teamwork among the healthcare practitioners. For organizational culture to yield any meaningful
results, it is vital for leaders to be resourceful and constantly captivated in innovation activity of
a distinct nature, from the revolutionary and breathtaking innovations to marginal
modernizations techniques that generate noticeable effects. Healthcare facilities with a desire to
innovate have to transform their organizational culture in manner that supports pro-innovative
physicians.
Various Leaderships Styles in Healthcare

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Healthcare firms operating in the turbulent and competitive environment can only outdo their
competitors through innovation that is supported by the leadership. According to Chen et al.
(2012, pp.1271), transformational leadership has proved to bear more fruits than most leadership
approaches in expediting organizational creativity in that it focuses upward mobility necessitated
by innovative maneuvers (Foster, 2015, pp. 26). Mujeeb and Ahmad (2011, pp. 66) note that
transformational leadership fosters an psychologically protected working atmosphere and even
participating in designing the right mood for innovation to proliferate. Again, scientifically
driven innovative practices inspire most organizations and openly impacts company output.
Therefore, the concentration on technical innovativeness resolves the condemnation on that past
research for scrutinizing a few markers including the number of copyrights as well as a new
product released (Acar & Acar, 2014, pp. 19-20).
Leadership behaviors are found within the framework of organizations, and as result, it is vital to
demystify ways in which conditional moderating factors intensify or constrain the efficacy of
transformational governance in easing healthcare industry operations. Scholars and practitioners
alike advocate for the conditional variables to be recognized as accompaniments, neutralizers, or
alternatives of a leader’s behavioral stimulus (Ashraf, 2016, pp. 201; Ghanavati, 2014, pp. 400).
By centering on how moderating factors maneuver, leaders can pinpoint organizational
circumstances that promote grander innovation outcomes.
Chen et al. (2012, pp. 1272-3) propositioned conditions of leader authority over creativity; that
is, create an atmosphere in which innovative ideas prosper (for example a culture in which
innovation is perceived as the primary way to stay on top of the competition) and avail primary
resources or benchmark strategies (such as incentive systems to remunerate innovative
endeavors). Stated differently, innovative outcomes tend to happen when organizational practices

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espouse innovative practices and when groundbreaking practices are remunerated. Consequently,
this study investigates the regulating impacts of innovative culture and inducement reparation on
the transformational governance–technical creativity correlation (Park, Lee, & Kim, 2016, pp.
317-18). Ever since the concept of transformational leadership was conceived in the late 1980s, a
lot research has concentrated on the efficiency of this leadership style with regards to utilization
by the top the executive leadership while responding to the dynamism in the corporate
environments and recently in the the healthcare industry.
Several intellectuals have depicted transformational leadership as embodying discrete entities
such as charisma, influence, intellectual and ideological stimulation, motivation nurturing the
acknowledgment and group goals, upholding unparalleled performance anticipations, and
offering personalized support and tailored consideration (Naranjo-Valencia et al., 2016, pp. 30;
Youngbantao & Rompho, 2015, pp. 124). Successive investigations have revealed that some of
these constituents are significant inter- linked or alike to each other (McKee et al., 2011, pp.
235). All these aspects of leadership are integral in organizational management and the
healthcare industry alike.
Authoritative leadership style is perceived by most people as an ideal in fostering impeccable
self- approval and self- respect among workers (Lutz, Smith, & Da Silva, 2013, pp. 25).
Healthcare practitioners who work under authoritative management project reliability,
independent-mindedness and razor-sharp concentration in their pursuant of set goals.
Authoritative leadership has well-defined aims and objectives, and superior benchmarks to be
realized by the physicians (Hofstetter & Harpaz, 2015, pp. 450). As such, healthcare leaders can
supervise their employees intimately with regards to their behavior anchored on sound approach
to care decisions. Supervision also inspires healthcare practitioners to examine their missteps in

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order to arrive at better judgments in future undertakings. Despite its robustness, authoritative
management is at times warm, encouraging and gentle, affectionate and acknowledging in
approach. According to Kacem and El Harbi (2014, pp. 300), corporations and healthcare
organizations observing authoritarian leadership style hardly nurture innovation. This is because
physicians are closely monitored and coerced into following a specific hospital schedule.
Democratic leadership style is participatory in nature although the democratic leader is entitled
to make the final decisions. This is because of it because it banks on employee involvement in all
the activities undertaken by a firm. The general aspiration of a representative leader is to inspire
employees’ investment of time and effort in the organization. It performs a critical function
towards the fulfillment of the organization and idiosyncratic goals and also aids in talent
developed ( Chen et al., 2012, pp. 1270).
Representative leadership approach is considered to be among the most fruitful in that it puts
more weight on leaders working together and supporting the followers. More often than not,
democratic leadership welcomes junior healthcare staff into the discussions aimed at arriving at
important decisions. This approach to leadership also addresses organizational disputes amicably
and easily. The leader is normally expected to implement the decisions made after taking
contributions of the members into account. In addition, this style guarantees physician
involvement and commitment in hospital affairs which ultimately improves healthcare services.
Facilities under the management of democratic bosses are most likely boost the morale of the
healthcare workers leading to substantial resolutions to challenges. This mostly leads to
atmosphere togetherness at every level (Ljungholm, 2014, pp. 110). These categories of leaders
take it upon themselves to make sure that all physicians set accurate and feasible objectives that
are meant to steer both facility and personal success. The leaders come to make annual plans

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together with their junior hospital staff as equals. The healthcare workers can take part during
appraisals of their own efforts.
Representative leadership, however, works best for leaders with desires to keeping their work
force well-informed on issues affecting the organization and even those who appreciate their
employees’ contributions in arriving at solutions to organizational challenges. It can yield more
fruits for healthcare organizations that are devoted to offering continual prospects for the
workforce in an attempt to ensuring perpetual growth and satisfactory degrees of job induced
satisfaction. Leaders with a thirst for team work and coordination easily manage to nurture a
representative leadership (Zhou et al., 2014, pp. 1267-68).
Nonetheless, other authors disagree with many authors to by emphasizing that democratic
leadership only works best for managers who are vastly flexible and open to new ideas. In an
exceedingly competent and qualified working place, the workforce perpetually services on every
day basis that courtesy of democratic leadership. As such, the leader needs to be as much
competent as well to keep with the gait with innovativeness generated by the followers. This
leadership style is also attributed to the leaders’ ability to exploit the talents and strengths of
every physician, which when coalesced create the influence of the whole. If a section of a
healthcare facility or the entire facility aspires to instigate major operative transformations or
when a leader desires to address issues prevailing between personalities and groups of workers,
going democratic in resolving it is the only choice.
Despite the alluring benefits, democratic leadership style is has its negatives. There are
innumerable situations when it is not applicable. For example, when the approach is not
generating agreeable outcomes regarding cost-effectiveness and time-effectiveness with respect
to considering everyone’s contribution, not many healthcare or corporate organizations find

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democratic path appealing.
A democratic leader has to ensure that all communication channels accessible. By so doing, they
propagate the belief that leadership is an ambition but not a preference. This seems to be in line
with the fortitude of unrestricted negotiations aimed at striking a reasonable equilibrium between
fresh ideologies and maintaining current operational plans in motion. In making sure all goes
well, this type of leader always respects and takes into deliberation all ideas suggestions by
everyone attending the meeting. The leaders must also be ready to express and foster high
confidence and certainty in themselves and their followers. The leaders elaborate their
alternatives but never express regret for the path not chosen. This style of leadership calls for
persuasive and sound individuals who are certain to commit to astronomical levels of flexibility.
This is because as stated previously, experienced and competent personnel will keep on
innovating ways of carrying out healthcare facility interests. It requires leaders who are steadfast
enough in employees’ responding innovativeness. As such, it calls for leaders who are bold and
successful enough to advance a vibrant working environment for physicians who are zealous to
thrive in their undertakings.
Conclusion
Different leaders approach their duties from viewpoints. All the celebrated leaders from around
the globe have led their people in their unique ways but the results achieved are appealing to
everyone’s eyes. Great leadership is focused on the people. In the healthcare industry great
leadership should be focused on the patients. In most times, noble business leaders tend to funnel
efforts towards refining the quality of life of the people they serve rather promoting themselves.
They hardily show desire to misuse public resources. Despite, the temptations and pressure
misappropriate sources; visionary leaders manage to suppress the urge so as to serve the interests

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of the organization and the employees. Noble leadership understands that it poses an influence
on the implementation of organizational policy. The simple reason for this is that leaders and
employees work together in that without employees, the leadership alone can execute company
policy. When people come together for whatever reason, it is important to have rules to guide the
people as they strife to relation comply with standards and benchmarks set. In such instances,
leadership is tasked with overseeing that there are restrictions and rewards put in place to preside
over implementation of public policies.

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